By Joe Anuta
The heads of Queens public housing communities blasted the mayor’s recent suggestion that residents should be fingerprinted in order to make the houses safer.
“He’s associating residents with being a criminal, and it’s deplorable,” said Craig Kinsey, president of the James A. Bland Resident Association, located in downtown Flushing. “It is a condescending type of attitude.”
Kinsey was responding to a comment Mayor Michael Bloomberg said last Friday on his weekly radio chat with WOR’s John Gambling, where he said residents should have their fingerprints checked to gain access to the buildings.
“If you have strangers walking in the halls of your apartment building, don’t you want somebody to stop and say, ‘Who are you? Why are you here?’” he said.
Bloomberg was discussing the disparity between the number of people who live in the city’s public housing and the amount of crime that is committed there, but the fingerprinting suggestion is not part of any specific initiative.
The Bland Houses are currently waiting on a long-delayed, comprehensive security system including cameras and a layered entry system that is supposed to deter crime.
Reach reporter Joe Anuta by e-mail at januta@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
